RESOURCE... LAWS... heard of it? Long Beach teachers develop new science curriculum to meet nation’s new content standards By Nadra Nittle, Long Beach Press Telegram Posted: 07/21/14, 10:36 AM PDT | Two Long Beach teachers have developed a curriculum for secondary science classrooms that joins together the new national content standards for language arts and science. The Literacy and Writing in Science curriculum, recently developed by Rachel Murillo and Heather Valdespino, has earned fans locally and nationally, according to the pair. The women, teachers at Hill Classical Middle School during the 2013-14 school year, have given presentations about LAWS at educational conferences across the country. They say that fellow teachers appreciate the curriculum because it makes writing an integral part of science coursework, a good fit for the new Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards, which make interdisciplinary learning a priority in classrooms. “Right now because of Common Core, they’re trying to incorporate language arts techniques in science and history,” said Valdespino, who teaches the latter. Nearly all 50 states have adopted the Common Core State Standards, which must be fully implemented by the upcoming school year and create a national set of guidelines for core academic subjects. Due to the new content standards, teachers in all subject areas have been “asked to do more writing in class, not just lab reports,” said Murillo. “It needs to be critical thinking skills.” At Hill Classical Middle School, writing essays comes easily to students, according to Murillo. But the students aren’t so familiar with technical writing. The LAWS program sets out to change that. With the curriculum, students are given a timely topic, such as genetically modified food. They then read a “hook” activity to draw them into the topic. They use the scientific method to form a hypothesis about the matter and discuss their points of view with each other, Murillo said. They must use evidence to back up their viewpoints and produce a counterargument to develop a well-rounded view of the subject at hand. This past school year, Murillo used the first volume of the LAWS curriculum, which focused on integrated science, in her classroom. Future volumes will focus on specific forms of science, such as biology and earth science. Murillo said that Long Beach Unified welcomes donations of the curriculum to local schools but won’t be formally adopting the program because it constitutes a conflict of interest, given that Murillo and Valdespino profit from sales of LAWS. They developed the curriculum in conjunction with their new company Science Curriculum Innovations LLC. However, teachers and schools within the district (and others) may opt to buy the curriculum and use it in their classrooms. It took Murillo and Valdespino months to develop the first volume of the curriculum, which they began working on last year. The fact that Valdespino teaches history and Murillo teaches science benefited the teachers as they came together to create an interdisciplinary curriculum, they said. In addition to having a teaching credential in history, Valdespino has a master’s degree in curriculum instruction and design and Murillo has a master’s degree in forensic anthropology. Both teachers studied anthropology as undergrads. Murillo has been teaching since 1995, and Valdespino has been teaching since 2001. “It’s had a huge response from high school teachers and community college teachers,” said Murillo of the LAWS curriculum. They say, “We can totally use this.” Because they’ve presented the LAWS curriculum at conferences, such as the National Science Teachers Association in Boston three months ago, the teachers say they have drawn teacher fans from states as far away as Massachusetts and Connecticut. Murillo said that while Long Beach Unified teachers have been fortunate to work in a district that has made writing a priority for educators of all subjects, their counterparts across the country haven’t been as lucky. They haven’t had as much writing training, she said, which makes science teachers in different states appreciate the LAWS curriculum even more. “So far there’s been nothing but positive feedback,” Murillo said. “It was really refreshing to meet with all of these people across the country, and they’re like, ‘Thank you for doing this.” The LAWS curriculum has also won over teachers right here in Long Beach, including Paige Wells, a science teacher at John Muir K-8 School on Delta Avenue. Wells said that she plans to test out the LAWS curriculum in her classroom next year. “What I really like is it has the writing portion embedded in the lessons,” Wells said. “And additionally it already has resources for reliable sources that we can use for students.” With references to reliable sources, students can then conduct the research they need to form an argument. “Students have to analyze, then they have to be able to describe both sides of the argument,” Wells continued. “What they have to do to formulate their opinion is really high level. It increases the rigor rather than just reading out of the textbook. They have to be able to explain both sides and support their reasoning.” Wells said that few of the science books in current use in her school have such a fresh take on science or wed science and writing together in the way the LAWS program does. Valdespino said that she and Murillo created the program precisely because few science books substantially incorporate writing in lessons for students. “We’re two teachers who are trying to help teachers,” Valdespino said. “That’s been our main goal — to help teachers effectively teach science writing to kids.” For more information about LAWS, visit: literacyandwritinginscience/. Contact Nadra Nittle at 562-499-1291.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 21:22:26 +0000
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